Development Diary (2023)

2023 Development Diary for my Cave Story fangame:

12/31/2023:

Today marks the end of this year. I'm gonna try to work on polishing the secret challenge in-game while touching up on other things.

Looking back at all of these entries brings a smile to my face. This was fun, and I will do another development diary for my fangame next year. Not now, but later, I promise.

12/30/2023:

Alex is now aged down to that of Toroko's age. It would make more sense why Bartholomew and other friends are really trying to clear enemies for the little fella, because they're trying to protect him.

Curly Brace from the Cave Story Beta will make a return in Torotribution in some way or another.

12/29/2023:

I wanted Alex to have a mimiga form in some way or another. Originally in the darker draft we were either gonna have own "Mimiga Mode" or a special part of the game dedicated to playing as a mimiga.

I didn't know how I could exactly implement him... Until today. There will be a special "Theater Prop" (fake knife) in a later part of the game that turns Alex into a mimiga upon using it. There will be a dark theater play to go with it too, based on the darker version of Torotribution.

12/28/2023:

It is my birthday today.

12/26/2023:

I finally got the idea for a Misery-esque villain in my fangame, who was added out of spite. Don't got anything to say about him here for now, other than he'll be carrying the Ancient Knife.

Also, Ame will be in the new version of Torotribution. Don't worry, just because she was gonna appear in the older story doesn't mean she's scrapped. 

12/25/2023:

Merry christmas.  

Yesterday, I got the idea of turning Bartholomew's Base into a lab since my friend pointed out that the green tiles in there look like something out of a lab instead of a labyrinth.

12/24/2023:

I had the idea last night of changing the Currency count to a "Locket count". It serves as more of a kill count now.

I also had to fix the scale of the ladders after it took me AGES to realize how wrong they looked.

12/22/2023:

Since yesterday, I changed the name of this fangame to "Torotribution". A friend of mine suggested it for me since I wanted to change it.

12/21/2023:

I have to redo the attack system. I am not scrapping it and never will, but from what I learned with Sophia's playtesting, Alex using a weapon won't work too well really. So we'll have Bartholomew slay enemies for Alex!

12/20/2023:

HAPPY 19TH ANNIVERSARY TO CAVE STORY!

12/19/2023:

Today my sprite artist did the sprites of Bartholomew holding the Gigantic Kitchen Knife. They looked hilarious and wonderful.

Oh yeah, since Cave Story's 19th anniversary is coming out very soon, there will be builds released today and on the anniversary. Already released a new patch, nothing really special though other than a few fixes.

12/17/2023:

"Frenzied Serif" has now been changed up a bit. (Not design-wise, his design's still the same) He's now just a demon that's trying to haunt Toroko by taking the demonic form of one of her 2 Soa friends. He'll start out as an oddly strange looking version of Serif before instantly transforming into an abomination.

He will be the only enemy in the RPG Battle minigame.

12/16/2023:

I changed up Serif a bit. He is now a propeller Soa who wields the Frontier while being one of the only other few playable characters in game.

12/15/2023:

Last night I streamed myself testing out Alex Anomaly to Doodrun. He liked where the game went! He also gave one specific piece of feedback about the area with Serif in it.

12/13/2023:

Since yesterday, I've now made the important decision to greatly scrap RPG battles as a whole in game since they've been getting annoyingly buggy. Let's just stick to destroying enemies the Metroidvania way, as this will just be a Metroidvania game with RPG-esque elements to it.

Levels may or may not be scrapped, depending on how I feel about them in the end. I want to add them but the conflicting text graphics look ugly to me.

The ability to use skills out of battle in-game will be added back.

12/12/2023:

There will now be a Sue Sakamoto expy in the game who's quite a feisty horned Soa that dislikes most of his kind.

12/11/2023:

I've been working on finishing the redone intro, while adding a funny reference to the Cave Story Beta in there (Big Bat Soa relaxing upside down)

12/10/2023:

Since yesterday and today, I've been testing out projectiles, map obstacles, and destructible walls. It's now more like Cave Story and I feel happy.

12/9/2023:

Bartholomew is now a bit of a crazy character in the RPG version. He won't be crazy as in "Crazy evil" but is he crazy enough that he DESIRES to revive Toroko after his cousin Balrog fed her the red flowers? Hell yes he is. He's SERIOUS about it, and his mission to "save Toroko" is greatly motivated by Balrog and Alex's grieving (especially when Balrog regrets hurting poor Toroko).

12/7/2023:

Now we're gonna have 2 versions of the game. Well isn't that wonderful..? But seriously though, I want there to be both an RPG version and a remake/reboot of the game as a Cave Story mod.

12/5/2023:

I am still working on the first battle in the redone Alex Anomaly.

12/1/2023:

Yesterday marked an important day because I had to rewrite the story again.. It's no longer about killing Soas but will still be about Toroko.

11/29/2023:

Yesterday, Piyo was redone as a character in game who serves as a weapon.. He's like an edgy version of The Littles from Cave Story.

11/27/2023:

Days ago, Jack was finally implemented in-game. Right now I am gonna try to put more detail to the game.

11/24/2023:

Yesterday, I came up with a Balrog expy named "Bartholomew". He is heavily based off of an enemy from the Cave Story Beta.

Hopefully I can find a way to make him more like a "Scrappy"-type character because I want people to purposefully feel bad for killing him.

One last thing... I'm redoing the whole "Item Popup" GUI thing to reference the 2013 reboot of Rockfish that Amaya-san once developed before moving onto Kero Blaster.

11/21/2023:

I forgot to update this. Don't worry, it's still going to come out soon.

I need to do some things, such as re-implementing the Mouse Click Movement because I've realized how hard it is for people to enter certain areas.

11/10/2023:

After days of development and postponing.. This demo is almost ready to be complete. Just waiting for one of my composers to do more tracks for the game.

11/6/2023:

It has been a day since the official demo trailer has been released. I am trying my best to finish up and fix up this demo so that it'll be ready as soon as possible.

Oh yeah, I also made the Battle GUI a bit more like Cave Story's HUD now.

11/4/2023:

Since that part was a total pain and I had no success with that concept, I think I have no choice but to simply make the allies act more like how Curly Brace and Su- functioned as the player's ally. Just simply near indestructible NPCs that fought for you in battle.

Yeah, they just fight without your control in battles now.

11/3/2023:

I am planning and trying to figure a way to replace the Actor's HP with MP and MP with TP for Alex's allies. Yanfly's Skill Core plugin is being confusing for some reason.

11/2/2023:

Today was 2 days past Alex Anomaly's 3rd anniversary. I have finished the Combat Tutorial for the game.